I love spring. To me, spring means lots of sunshine, green grass, and flowers. But for some members of my family, spring means something else - dreaded hay fever.
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Our immune system is our best line of defence against pathogens like viruses and bacteria. One of the jobs of our immune system is to recognise these things as being foreign, and produce antibodies to help neutralise them. But sometimes our immune systems decide to get a little overly dramatic.
Hay fever (or allergic rhinitis if you want the proper name) is the result of your own immune system getting a tad overexcited when it comes into contact with allergens like pollens, produced by grasses and trees.
Our bodies identify pollen as being foreign, and our immune system makes antibodies that recognise and stick to these foreign particles.
When we breathe in pollen, antibodies in our noses will try and grab hold of these particles. Some of these antibodies are attached to special cells called mast cells.
Mast cells are a type of white blood cell, and they're used to store a chemical called histamine.
When antibodies on mast cells bind to pollen, it causes histamine to be released from those cells. And it's this histamine that's responsible for the symptoms of hay fever. Histamine does a number of things. In our nose it causes inflammation and irritation, which makes us sneeze. It also tells the cells in your nose to produce more mucous - hence the runny nose.
The same sort of thing happens around your eyes - histamine release causes inflammation and irritation, so you get runny, itchy eyes. The more allergens that are around, the greater the reaction. Windy days are particularly bad, as they stir up and spread pollen around.
Unfortunately there's no cure for hay fever. The best thing is to try and limit exposure to pollens - a great excuse to stay inside and watch a movie instead of mowing the spring grass.
Antihistamine medications help to counteract the effects of histamine, and there's a range of eye drops and nasal sprays you can also take to minimise the symptoms.
Interestingly, some people who suffer from hay fever or other allergies as children can grow out of them over time.
While we aren't sure why that happens, I'm holding out some hope that my son will grow out of it so he can learn to love spring as much as I do.
Dr Mary McMillan is a lecturer at the School of Science and Technology, University of New England.
